Knapp fired up about return to Raiders

Greg Knapp is back for a second go-round with the Raiders as their offensive coordinator. He made it clear in an interview with CSNBayArea’s Matt Maiocco that he is excited about the prospect of working with many of the key players from last year’s offense.
Knapp told Maiocco in an interview that he intends to implement the zone-blocking scheme that first surfaced when Tom Cable joined as the offensive line coach.
He doesn’t seem the least bit worried about running back Darren McFadden being able to succeed in that blocking scheme.
“I was here last in 2008, and Darren McFadden was a rookie that year,” Knapp said. “I’m excited to get back with him. He really fits our run scheme well, as far as the zone scheme, which I’ll be implementing with our coaches. That’s a great starting point for me.”
Knapp also said that he has had multiple phone conversations with quarterback Carson Palmer, as well as backup quarterback Terrelle Pryor and right guard Cooper Carlisle.
Knapp said Palmer is excited about returning as the Raiders starting quarterback. Palmer has not spoken with the media since the Raiders fired coach Hue Jackson, the person who engineered the controversial trade for Palmer midway through last season.
“I’ve heard all these great things about him before I got here and since I’ve been here,” Knapp said during the scouting combine last week. “Talking to him on the phone about a half-dozen times, and I think I’m just as excited to work with him as he is to work in our offense.”
Knapp left the Raiders after the 2008 season, soon after being stripped of his play-calling duties by Cable. He spent one season with the Seattle Seahawks as their offensive coordinator and the past two seasons with the Houston Texans as their quarterbacks coach.
He said the mood around the Raiders facility is infectious.
“There’s a definite positive vibe going on,” Knapp said. “I was very excited to see what Reggie’s plan was when I came in and initially met with him.
“D.A.’s energy is contagious with everybody. The players are feeling it. The guys who have been in the building for a long time — equipment guys, trainers, video guys — are feeling it. It’s neat to be a part of something at the ground level and build this thing.”
Knapp’s first crack at working with the players comes April 2, the first day coaches are allowed to interact with the players for the 2012 season.
That leaves plenty of time for the players to adapt to, or relearn, the zone-blocking scheme, as well as Knapp’s offense.
“There will be a learning curve,” Knapp said. “I think that happens with any transition with a new team. But we’ll have plenty of time to get it implemented. Whenever we’re in a start-up mode like we are here, like a start-up company, it’s my job to make sure that we don’t do everything at once but piece it correctly together. We’ll have building blocks, so to speak, to implement the offense.”

Steve Corkran

Post navigation

Well, I guess now it looks like the Raiders are $25 million over the cap. Interesting.

aig-raiders

Energy, vibe, and momentum are infectious things in sports and any work environment. I am taking a wild guess here but the people at the Raider HQ is feeling comfy for the first time ever while working there. Not having Al and his spies running around would certainly make your day a whole lot better. Al loved to make people feel edgy. Mark Davis, RM and DA have pushed all the right buttons so far. 10-6 minimum and the division next year. Book that.

I like Knapp here cause you know Reggie is goin to keep one eye peeled on him. He screws that offense like our previous OC did and he’s gone. In a New York minute. But to our previous OC’s credit, he had a dogschitt defense that clouded his thinking. However, excuses aside, thats no excuse.

You can bet the back side of your ass that the Raiders are now playing football in the 21st century. I just hope they don’t lose the mystique that made them the Raiders.

aig-raiders

You can bet the back side of your ass that the Raiders are now playing football in the 21st century. I just hope they don’t lose the mystique that made them the Raiders.
—————
Agreed and well said. The good thing is Allen was part of the wrecking crew D at A&M. His philosophy on D is he wants his D to be feared. If our players start laying wood on the opposing team, then I think the fans would buy in quickly.

Seymour Bush

lefty12 Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 9:19 pm

Most teams incorporate different aspects of different systems in their offenses and defenses.Not many run only a WCO or a vertical offense.
================================

Exactly. What most people don’t realize is the WCO is over 30 years old. We might as well be talking about the single wing offense.

By Steve Corkran
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 5:10 pm in Oakland Raiders.

Greg Knapp is back for a second go-round with the Raiders as their offensive coordinator. He made it clear in an interview with CSNBayArea’s Matt Maiocco that he is excited about the prospect of working with many of the key players from last year’s offense.
Knapp told Maiocco in an interview that he intends to implement the zone-blocking scheme that first surfaced when Tom Cable joined as the offensive line coach.
He doesn’t seem the least bit worried about running back Darren McFadden being able to succeed in that blocking scheme.
“I was here last in 2008, and Darren McFadden was a rookie that year,” Knapp said. “I’m excited to get back with him. He really fits our run scheme well, as far as the zone scheme, which I’ll be implementing with our coaches. That’s a great starting point for me.”
Knapp also said that he has had multiple phone conversations with quarterback Carson Palmer, as well as backup quarterback Terrelle Pryor and right guard Cooper Carlisle.
Knapp said Palmer is excited about returning as the Raiders starting quarterback. Palmer has not spoken with the media since the Raiders fired coach Hue Jackson, the person who engineered the controversial trade for Palmer midway through last season.
“I’ve heard all these great things about him before I got here and since I’ve been here,” Knapp said during the scouting combine last week. “Talking to him on the phone about a half-dozen times, and I think I’m just as excited to work with him as he is to work in our offense.”
Knapp left the Raiders after the 2008 season, soon after being stripped of his play-calling duties by Cable. He spent one season with the Seattle Seahawks as their offensive coordinator and the past two seasons with the Houston Texans as their quarterbacks coach.
He said the mood around the Raiders facility is infectious.
“There’s a definite positive vibe going on,” Knapp said. “I was very excited to see what Reggie’s plan was when I came in and initially met with him.
“D.A.’s energy is contagious with everybody. The players are feeling it. The guys who have been in the building for a long time — equipment guys, trainers, video guys — are feeling it. It’s neat to be a part of something at the ground level and build this thing.”
Knapp’s first crack at working with the players comes April 2, the first day coaches are allowed to interact with the players for the 2012 season.
That leaves plenty of time for the players to adapt to, or relearn, the zone-blocking scheme, as well as Knapp’s offense.
“There will be a learning curve,” Knapp said. “I think that happens with any transition with a new team. But we’ll have plenty of time to get it implemented. Whenever we’re in a start-up mode like we are here, like a start-up company, it’s my job to make sure that we don’t do everything at once but piece it correctly together. We’ll have building blocks, so to speak, to implement the offense.”

JB Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 9:41 pm
Saunders is Reggie’s insurance policy. If Knapp blows then Saunders comes in to take over OC duties while Knapp recovers from a mystery illness. It’s all part of Reggie’s plan.
————————————

Sweet.

Raider Fan from the north pole

even tho the raiders committed a ton of penalties this season, and a lot of them too, santa has been very good to them.

Long time listener, first time caller. Just want to say hello to everyone and to all the folks back home in Chicago and Tulsa, a big shout to my room mates at San Diego State, and my wifes family, you all know who you are, and my cousin Joey in South City, Jim in San Bruno, Ralph in Phoenix, Steve in Memphis, Cornell in Seattle, some of my old drinkin buddies along Route 66, you got that right, the loner in Montana, and some crazy folk in Sydney, the land down under. You guys give me a call sometime. But don’t call me during football season, cause I’m all Raider.

Figures obtained by CSNBayArea.com show exactly where the Raiders sit when it comes to money earmarked for the salary cap — Oakland has $145,774,984 in player contracts that currently count toward the 2012 cap. Subtract the reported $3.23 million the Raiders can roll over from the 2011 books, and they have $142,514,984 devoted to the 2012 cap.

Thanks YA…we are making no moves in Free Agency for players, we are letting “big” money contracts with no return or without a big cap hit “walk”.

we will gut the defense…sign replacements, and not suffer, because nobody on defense earned their money last year and are replacable!

JB

Random Drug Tester Says:
February 28th, 2012 at 9:57 pm

Where was Knapp last year? Notice how that team didn’t stop us from interviewing him and probably were praying that we hired him?
*****************************

Knapp was with the Texans as an Assistant Coach – QB. His new OC job is a definite promotion over where he was. He had 2 prior stints as OC. The first was here in Oakland under Koffen/Cable. He was relieved of his position mid-stream for ineffective production by the O. Part of his problem was that he had JaLoser at QB. He followed that job as an OC in Seattle. He was not productive there either. That’s not a very good track record. DA and Knapp are BFF’s from the old days. I think this new OC assignment is just one old buddy taking care of his friend.

I think Saunders is on staff just in case Knapp tanks he O again. If he does, Saunders will be in there pronto.

Seymour Bush

Greg Knapp has been in the NFL for going on 20 years. I am glad some of you guys seem to know more about the NFL than the people that have worked in it for decades.

We’re going to be a lot like the Bucs of 10 years ago. We’re a defensive team from top to bottom. What a difference a change in management makes.

YoungAmerican

Raiders will have to play moneyball this offseason. They’ll need to dump some huge contracts and eat some of that salary in the process, which means the replacements will have to come on the cheap.

Richard Marshall and Barrett Ruud are two low-dollar free agents who fit the bill.

Tracy Porter and Aubrayo Franklin would be nice pieces, and won’t cost nearly as much as some of the top or even mid-tier free agents out there, but the Raiders will have to make some additional room for either of them to be a possibility.

Well shut my mouth Seymour Bush…why do I bother to type when the almight Greg Knapp has been hired by friends and fired multiple times…your say so is enough for me to stop talking…too bad everybody on this blog tells YOU to stop talking and you don’t.

My concern is that Knapp consistently talks about implementing HIS system and never refers to learning about the strengths of players currently on the roster and utilizing that in an ultimate gameplan/playbook.

Just me noticing why he has failed alot before.

JB

Here’s how I see it:

So who else is a prime candidate to have their contract re-structured or even find himself on the chopping block? A look at the salary cap figures reveals 16 players that have cap numbers of at least $3.3 million and might want to sit near their phone over the next few weeks…

1) RMR – Senior Moderator of the Blog (this is his job)
2) Trolls – other MODS just stirring the pot.
3) This Blog is now going to die because the MODS thought they were more important than the honest, insightful, genuine Raider fan commenters that made this blog interesting and informative as opposed to a stupid, argumentative, soap opera.

The real problem is that we now have new players in critical positions. We don’t really know what the master plan is. Other than fix the D and score some points, there’s no definitive information to formulate any theories on. To make matters worse, we don’t have any picks in the upcoming draft until #97. That doesn’t give us any particulars to speculate about. We are all shooting blanks in here based on very little validated information. The only things we know for sure is that Knapp is not making too many people feel comfortable with his fixing an offense that wasn’t broken. The moderators need to get some fresh meat on the line so we can have something to gnaw on.

We can do anything we want to the Defense…and it will be an improvement!

All that needs to be done with the Offense is to utilize the off-season, OTA’s, and Training Camp to reap the benefits of a QB with his offensive players, the return of McFadden, and the growth of the WR’s and OLine.